9 thoughts on “Spectrasonics Omnisphere 2.6 Now Available As A Free Update”

1. I’m sorry but I feel that aside from omnispheres awesome samples, it’s genuinely an overrated synth. The unison sounds uninspired, the FM is god awe full; the filters sound plastic. I mean all the modulation options are great and it does have some really great features such as its arpeggiator and its great selection of Fx. But Jesus there are so many parts of this synth are dreadfully sub par and this total integration think is kind of dumb, I mean hell they put out a video that felt the need to explain themselves about the technology. Look it’s just my opinion, I’m willing to hear out why I’m wrong.

   1. How well do you know OmniSphere? It sounds like you haven’t spent much time with it.

      It’s an impressively deep synthesizer, and a great sounding synth, too. There’s very little you can’t do in Omnisphere, if you take the time to learn it.

      The hardware synth integration is extremely powerful if you dig into it, too. Sounds like you may have only a surface understanding of what you can do with it.

      Maybe you’re just not into Omnisphere! What software synths do you like?

2. Ive spent a lot of time with Omnisphere and Omnisphere 2. This is what id say. Things I like about it are its gorgeous samples, its depth of modulation capabilities, its massive fx and filter section and its arpeggiator. That being said, as far as its sound when it comes to the DSP driven synthesis, im not very impressed. As I said before, the filters sound plastic, the oscillators don’t have a lot of body, the FM and AM is god awful, the unison sounds very one dimensional and cold and the granular is just bad and doesn’t give me any musicality out of it. I just don’t like the sound of the synth (outside of its fantastic samples). Now im not denying that people can do things with it that are really great, but that being said, I just don’t like the DSP engines sound. Synths I like are Zebra2, Dune 2, Bazille, Sylenth1, Diva (Basically everything u-he), DCAM synth squad. These synths have real sounds unique to them. Now im not saying that Omnisphere doesn’t, but you can’t deny that some sections of that synth are genuinely half baked.

   1. Sell your copy and make another person happy. If you really own one 😛 😛 😛

3. Love Omnisphere! Was one of the last VSTs I purchased but I could kick myself for not buying it sooner. Omnisphere is by far, the best VST I have purchased. It sounds great. The interface is big and easy to use. Has a massive library that is easy to navigate. Well worth the money.

4. If the base sound of Omnisphere doesn’t wow Andrew, so be it. There’s no sin in that! I give a few things the subjective stinkeye, too. However, two points strike me: Andrew’s favorite synths are mostly “synth-y,” whereas Omni is a massive Swiss Army knife built for astounding layering above all else. That prominently includes well-designed acoustic sources. Sylenth is a major beast of real merit, but its not built to apply bowed yew tree samples. It excels in its own arena.

   Second, I’m with Torgood. Even the most humble synth can rock if you allow for enough time to really learn the bulk of its abilities. I once had a Roland DEP-5 (IIRC) effects unit and a Juno-1. I would not have guessed it, but those two as a team contained a superior cello. Digging in often equals unexpected gold. I wouldn’t feel even halfway qualified to truly comment on Omnisphere until I’d been into it for at least a year. Don’t dismiss anything too easily. Remember, Bob Moog himself was gobsmacked at what Wendy Carlos achieved with her early modular. Omnisphere isn’t half-baked; its otherly.

5. Okay but guys, let’s try to address my actual arguments. So for instance do you think say the FM/AM is any good? How do you feel about my very specific criticisms of the synth. I don’t think the synth itself is half baked. I think that certain DSP driven sections of the synth are. Do you think Falcon’s FM section sounds nearly as bad and is nearly as one deminsional as Omnispheres is? Again, I agree that the synth has some great aspects, like the samples and the layering and whatnot, but there are some real issues with certain sections of this synth that y’all are glossing over. Those sections are what I am criticizing. So please, let’s discuss it.

6. Andrew B, I can’t comment on FM/AM as it’s not something I use much. I had Omni 1 before I bought any hardware synths and wasn’t that impressed. I bought lots of new synths and then really started digging into the synthesis side of Omni 2.5. I’m so impressed I sold my Prophet 6, Sub 37 and Virus TI2. I can easily recreate the sounds in Omnisphere. The flavours of many synths are accurately available in Omni. I love Sylenth but it is its own sound. Sometimes that’s what I want sometimes it isn’t. I’m not an Omni fan boy. I don’t like the hardware integration much. I have repeatedly begged Spectrasonics to make an Omni controller but they won’t. It’s a shame, as I get neck/back pain when working solely in software. If there was a controller then I don’t know whether I would use hardware synths.

7. Omnisphere will kick start my creativity every time I load it up. The sounds are amazing and the sound programming is absolutely stellar. It is not at all one-sided or samey-samey sounding. It can be so many things. To be honest, it does not have many DX styled tones, which don’t really float my boat anyway.
   I’ve own and have owned a ton of synths, including the Jupiter 8, Memorymoog, Oberheim OB1, OB8, OB6, Xpanders and digital stuff like D50s,JD800, and the better Korg ROMplers, etc. etc. not to mention Komplete and gig after gig of sample libraries plus endless plug-ins. If I had to chuck them all I’d be pretty satisfied with just Omnisphere. I can use it all day long without getting fatigued on it like I do sometimes with other synths.
   I saved well over $100 on it by checking online retailers at holiday sales. I purchased a few third party libraries and there are some amazing sound designers pushing the envelope of its capabilities. The synth is very easy to understand and supports loading your own samples as well.
   The latest 2.6 added D50 samples and they are quite authentic – the D50 programs are nuanced to a degree that well exceeds the vibe of the original.
   I will say that the hardware mapping, while it works, kinda doesn’t really make sense to me as inevitably you’re going to want to tweak some parameters that your hardware just doesn’t map to. It’s so easy to just map CC’s that you can customize the setup to your controller/synth the way you need to in no time.